1. If you resaw wood, keep a bandsaw blade strictly for this purpose. Cutting curves knocks down the set of the blade’s teeth which will cause a blade to wander.

2. Most boards display rift grain at the edges and plain grain in the middle. To cut legs for a project that displays straight riftsawn pattern on all four faces cut your legs from the edges of your boards. You will get legs with four good faces and look good from any angle.

3. When preparing laminates make the bottom board wider than the others, with one long edge machined straight and square. During glue-up have the squared edge proud of the rest of the stack. Once glue has dried you can use this edge against your tablesaw fence to square the other side.

4. Compact discs make excellent shims for setting up dado blades. Simply enlarge the hole to your tablesaw’s arbor size, and insert the discs between the blades to the required thickness you need.

5. Some woods are more prone to tearout and require an extra step when cutting, especially plywood. Run a strip of masking tape down the length of your wood; mark your cutline directly on the tape. Saw and remove tape. It should be tearout free.

These are just a few tips that I picked up over this past week. They come from a variety of sources including books, magazines, newsletters, online and some from personal experience.

There are more Woodworking Tips and Tidbits located here.

Back to the shop…

From time to time I come across some cool woodworking related videos. Some of them are instructional, some are humorous, some are just cool. I’m going to start posting them here on Woodworker’s Guide in a new category called ‘Cool Videos’.

Here is the first one. It’s a cute little animated story of a piece of scrap wood hoping someday to be something more. It’s called Seggy’s Dream:

Btw - The vase in the story sold on eBay as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society for $5600.00

Back to the shop…

I turned a small bowl today out of Curly Birch. To make it a bit different I added a base made out of Purpleheart:

Both the Birch and Purpleheart blocks were cut round and then glued together. I also glued on a tenon made of maple but this didn’t work out so well. It broke off while turning and I had to turn a tenon in the Purpleheart which led this layer to be a bit thinner than I planned. However, once completed the base was of a more pleasing size. I guess it knew better than I.

Continue reading 'Birch Bowl With Purpleheart Base'

I believe I mentioned earlier that I had never done mortise and tenon joinery before. However, so far it has been pretty straight forward. The biggest concern in creating mortises and tenons, especially with the tenon, is the measuring. Since you are looking for a snug fit, not too tight, not too loose, it is imperative that your measurements and cutting be precise.

I made the tenons on the tablesaw using the dado blade. I had looked at tenoning jigs, the bandsaw, etc. but this seemed to be the quickest and easiest way. It was just a matter of repeated passes over the blade to remove the unwanted wood:

Continue reading 'Craftsman Style Coffee Table - Part 3'

At last night’s meeting of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association we were brought back to our ‘Atlantic’ roots with a glimpse into the work of John Green, master model shipbuilder.

John started model shipbuilding at the age of 8 and has been actively building for the past 61 years. He enjoyed model shipbuilding so much that he retired at the age of 52 to do his passion full time. Although he says that he has retired it can be seen more as a positive career change since his ships sell for between $10,000 and $20,000 each with some commission pieces commanding even more! He also does repairs and restorations.

He is presently building several scale models of the Nova Scotia icon, The Bluenose which he plans on giving to his daughters.

John gave an overview of the intricate work required to create such a scale model, including the background research he does to ensure accuracy:

Continue reading 'I’se The B’y That Builds The Boat!'

I got around to using the Plunge Router Mortising Jig this morning to create the mortises in the legs for the Craftsman Style Coffee Table that I have under construction.

There are 3 mortises per leg, 2 at the top and 1 near the bottom. The 2 at the top are for the skirt that will go around the table, under the top and the 1 near the bottom is for a stretcher that runs between the legs on the short side.

Continue reading 'Craftsman Style Coffee Table - Part 2'

I recently received an email from Marc Spagnuolo welcoming Woodworker’s Guide to The Wood Whisperer Network!

The Wood Whisperer Network is a collection of blogs related to woodworking that offer lessons and tips learned through personal experience. It include blogs from both amateurs and professionals as well as audio and video blogs.

The Wood Whisperer Network is the creation of the Wood Whisperer himself, Marc Spagnuolo. Marc is a professional woodworker, pod caster video producer and a contributing editor to Fine Woodworking and is based out of Phoenix, Arizona.

Marc also operates The Wood Whisperer and the Wood Talk Online websites.

The Wood Whisperer website is “the online video show that offers a refreshing look at an age old craft”. Using online video Marc shows us step by step instruction on various projects that he is working on as well as woodworking related road trips. The website also includes a blog, product reviews, woodworking hints and more.

Continue reading 'The Wood Whisperer Network'

1. Crosscutting large sheets of plywood on the tablesaw can be difficult, and you usually end up binding the blade, burning the wood, or worse. To get around this, clamp a board under the plywood, and use it as an auxiliary fence which rides against the left edge of the tablesaw top.

2. You can use your screwdriver bits with a ratchet using a 1/4″ socket. This comes in especially handy when trying to put a screw in an awkward place.

3. Blunting the end of a nail will often prevent it from splitting the wood because a sharp point tends to separate the fibers of the wood causing it to split, while the blunt end shears the fibres as the nail is driven.

4. When woodturning always work down hill. In other words, work from the outside towards the center of the spindle or bowl. It is easier to work and control the gouge, chisel or scraper working this way.

5. Some woods, such as walnut or oak, are very tough and hard to carve. You can soften the wood up by applying de-natured alcohol to it. The alcohol will not cause the grain to raise like water will. The alcohol, of course, will evaporate with time.

These are just a few tips that I picked up over this past week. They come from a variety of sources including books, magazines, newsletters, online and from personal experience.

There are more Woodworking Tips and Tidbits located here.

Back to the shop…

I realized that there were no posts related to woodcarving so I thought I’d upload some photos of the few carvings that I have done. Although I enjoy carving it seems to always drop to the bottom of the list of things to do and be pre-empted for time. Perhaps seeing these will inspire me to pick up the chisels again in the near future.

Here is a photo of one the first carvings I did. This was around the latter part of 2003. It is a cowboy boot that’s made of pine and stands about 6″ tall. I finished it with a dark stain, trying to give it that ’scuffed old boot’ look’:

Continue reading 'Sleeping Birds, Boots And Spirits'

This is a project that I did a couple of years ago. When we had our kitchen cupboards made we couldn’t find a stove fan vent hood that we liked so I built one. Because there were issues with getting the fan vented I wasn’t able to finish the hood by adding the trim until yesterday.

The sides and back are made of baltic birch and the face is made of solid birch to match the rest of the kitchen cupboards. It is finished with a couple of coats of Varathane.

Continue reading 'Trimmin’ Da Hood, The Fan Goes Wild'